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TheThird Position is a set ofneo-fascist politicalideologies that were first described in Western Europe following theSecond World War.[1][2][3] Developed in the context of theCold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented a third position between thecapitalism of theWestern Bloc and thecommunism of theEastern Bloc.
The term "Third Position" was coined in Europe and the main precursors of Third Position politics wereItalian fascism,Legionarism,Falangism,Prussian socialism,National Bolshevism (a synthesis of far-rightultranationalism and far-leftBolshevism) andStrasserism (a radical, mass-action, worker-based form ofNazism, advocated by the "left-wing" of theNazi Party by brothersOtto andGregor Strasser, until it was crushed in theNight of the Long Knives in 1934).Neo-fascist,neo-Nazi authorFrancis Parker Yockey had proposed an alliance betweencommunists andfascists called thered-brown alliance (red being the color of communism and brown being the color of Nazism). Yockey lent support toThird World liberation movements as well.
Querfront ("cross-front") was the cooperation betweenconservative revolutionaries in Germany with thefar-left during theWeimar Republic of the 1920s.
Ernst Niekisch and others tried to combine communist andanti-capitalist nationalist forces to overthrow the existing order of the Weimar Republic. He called this merger "National Bolshevism". During his early years inNazi Party asSS-Gauführer, Nazi leaderHeinrich Himmler worked briefly as a deputy ofGregor Strasser, then head of party propaganda department. Influenced heavily byStrasserist ideas, Himmler attackedcapitalism and viewed socialism as "the natural economic system" during the 1920s.[4] Germany's Chancellor, GeneralKurt von Schleicher (in office 1932–33), attempted to induce the more left-wingStrasserist segment of the Nazi Party to merge with thetrade unions as way of forcing Hitler to support his government, but his plan failed.[5]
The term is also used today for mutualentryism or cooperation between left and right-wing groups. For example, at a Berlin peace rally on February 24, 2023, called bySahra Wagenknecht, at the time a leading figure of Germany's socialistLeft Party, and feministAlice Schwarzer in support of their manifesto calling for negotiations and stop of military support of Ukraine, far-right factions and pro-Russian supporters were in attendance.[6]
During the 1930s and 1940s, a number of splinter groups from theradical left became associated withradical nationalism.Jacques Doriot'sFrench Popular Party (from theFrench Communist Party) andMarcel Déat'sNational Popular Rally (from theFrench Section of the Workers' International). Third Position ideology gained some support in France, where in 1985Jean-Gilles Malliarakis set up a "Third Way" political party,Troisième Voie (TV). Considering its main enemies to be the United States, communism andZionism, the group advocated radical paths to national revolution. Associated for a time with theGroupe Union Défense, TV was generally on poor terms withFront National until 1991, when Malliarakis decided to approach them. As a result, TV fell apart and a radical splinter group underChristian Bouchet,Nouvelle Résistance, adopted National Bolshevik and thenEurasianist views.[7]
In Italy, the Third Position was developed byRoberto Fiore, along withGabriele Adinolfi andPeppe Dimitri, in the tradition of Italianneo-fascism. Third Position's ideology is characterized by amilitarist formulation, apalingenetic ultranationalism looking favourably to nationalliberation movements, support forracial separatism and the adherence to asoldier lifestyle. In order to construct a cultural background for the ideology, Fiore looked to theruralism ofJulius Evola and sought to combine it with the desire for a cultural-spiritual revolution. He adopted some of the positions of the contemporaryfar-right, notably theethnopluralism ofAlain de Benoist and the Europe-wide appeal associated with such views as theEurope a Nation campaign ofOswald Mosley (amongst others). Fiore was one of the founders of the Terza Posizione movement in 1978. Third Position ideas are now represented in Italy byForza Nuova, led by Fiore; and by the movementCasaPound, a network offar-right social centres.
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In the 1980s, theNational Front, a British fascist party that had experienced the height of its success in the 1970s, was taken over by a Strasserist faction that referred to themselves as Third Positionist.[8] The Strasserist-led National Front was also characterised by Baker as National Bolshevist in ideology.[9] Reflecting theNouvelle Droite's influence,[10] the Strasserist Official NF promoted support for "a broad front of racialists of all colours" who were seeking an end to multi-racial society and capitalism,[8] praisingblack nationalists likeLouis Farrakhan andMarcus Garvey.[11] Their publication,Nationalism Today, featured positive articles on the governments ofLibya andIran, presenting them as part of a global anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist third force in international politics;[12] its members openly acknowledged the influence of Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi and hisThird International Theory.[13] This may have had tactical as well as ideological motivations, with Libya and Iran viewed as potential sources of funding.[10] This new rhetoric and ideology alienated much of the party's rank-and-file membership.[14] It experienced internal problems, and in 1989 several of its senior members—Nick Griffin,Derek Holland, and Colin Todd—split from it to establish theirInternational Third Position group.[14] One of its leaders wasRoberto Fiore, an ex-member of the Italian far-right movementTerza Posizione.[15]
In the United States,Political Research Associates argues that Third Position politics has been promoted by somewhite nationalist andneo-Nazi groups such as theNational Alliance,American Front,Traditionalist Worker Party,Patriot Front, andWhite Aryan Resistance, as well as someblack nationalist groups, such as theNation of Islam, since the late 20th century.[16] In 2010, the American Third Position Party (later renamedAmerican Freedom Party) was founded in part to channel theright-wing populist resentment engendered by the2008 financial crisis and the policies of theObama administration.[17]
Notes
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)revised 4/15/1994, 3 corrections 1999
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